Farmer's Almanac E-Book

Christine Sunderman

• Herausgeber: A&S publishing LLC
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Producing nutrient-dense food, fighting climate change, boosting ecosystem biodiversity, improving air and water quality, saving a ton of money due to increased yields and reduced need for synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides are just a few of the many advantages of regenerative agriculture. Infinite examples might be given!
If this sounds complicated and like it will require technical knowledge, don't worry. It's not hard to figure out what your soil wants and give it what it needs.
To begin fostering a more fruitful connection with the land and reaping its full potential, consult this accessible guide.

Leseprobe

[Date]

Christine Sunderman

Farmer's Almanac

Utilizing Compost in Agriculture and Horticulture

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART ONE: The Active Horizon

Chapter: One WHAT LIVES IN THE GROUND, Biologically

Chapter: TWO

CONCERNING THE EARTH WORM

Chapter: THREE My Corrival Fungus

Chapter: FOUR

MOLD CAUSED BY PECILLIUM

PART TWO

Theorizing and Applying Composting

Chapter: FIVE

Chapter: SIX

Making a Compost Pile

Chapter: SEVEN

PROCESS OF COMPOSTING

Chapter: EIGHT

ROCK, WOOD ASH, AND LIME

Wood Ashes

Ground-up Rocks as Fertilizer

Rocks—Parents of Soil

Chapter: NINE

Method of Applying

Weight of Compost

Winter Conditions

Chapter: TEN

Small Pit Method

Garbage Disposal

Chapter: ELEVEN

Chapter: TWELVE

Chapter: THIRTEEN

PART THREE

Chapter: FOURTEEN

ARE CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS NECESSARY?

Chapter: FIFTEEN

CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS ARE TOO STRONG

CONDEMNED FARM LANDS-CHEMURGY

WEED KILLERS ANDDISINFECTANTS

CHEMICAL VS. BIOLOGICCONCEPTS

YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR CHEMISTRY

PART FOUR

Health or Disease from Food

Chapter: SIXTEEN

HUMAN HEALTH AND COMPOSTS —THE "MEDICALTESTAMENT"

THE"MEDICALTESTAMENT"

IS OUR HEALTH RELATED TO THE SOIL?

DISEASES OF FARMANIMALS

PLANT DISEASE AND INSECTPESTS

SAFE MEANS OF CHECKINGINSECTS AND DISEASE INGARDENS

ORGANIC OR CHARDS

PART FIVE

Chapter: SEVENTEEN

SOME PRACTICE—GOOD AND BAD

TOP LOWOR NOT TOP LOW

BURNING OVER LAND

ORGANIC vs. "ARTIFICIAL"POULTRY

Earth worm Fed Chickens

Conclusion

Introduction

All around the world, a revolution in agriculture and gardening is taking place. Healthy crops, healthy cattle, and, last but not least, healthy people all depend on fertile soil.

If I had to briefly summaries the premise of this movement and the overall benefits being obtained. A soil is considered fertile when Nature's law of return has been rigorously followed, and there is enough freshly made humus in the form of compost made from both vegetable and animal waste.

Making the majority of the earth's green space into that extraordinary apparatus that will produce all of our food and a significant portion of the raw materials required by our factories is part of this revolution in crop production. The green leaf cell and the energy that powers it (the point of the sun) are two components of Nature's factory that owe nothing to mankind. They are the gifts of provision that no scientific knowledge can duplicate, much less outdo. There are just two ways that mankind may help the food factory. He can take care of the soil that supports the lush carpet of greenery and the soil's unpaid working force, including molds, microorganisms, earthworms, and other organisms. He can also maximize the benefits of improved soil conditions and sunlight energy by choosing crops through plant breeding techniques. However, one glaring error must be avoided by the plant breeder. He must not be satisfied with enhancing the variety alone; otherwise, the soil will soon run out from his labours. The improved type will extract more from the ground and become a boomerang. Therefore, the plant breeder must always exercise caution not to focus solely on diversity but also to improve soil fertility. Such crops will care for themselves, and insect and fungal pests won't cause much harm.

What services have the Americans provided for the nation's green carpet? The Federal Department of Agriculture's Yearbook of 1938, issued under "Soils and Men," offers the solution. Results of a careful assessment of the country's cultivated soil were documented in this work. It revealed the startling 253,000,000 acres, or 61% of the total area under crops, having either been entirely or partially destroyed or lost most of its fertility. This stemmed from land exploitation that caused widespread soil erosion.

The natural result of the compound soil particles collapsing is soil erosion, whose management is essential to the health of the soil population and the crop. These composite particles comprise mineral pieces held together by tiny bits of organic material produced by the soil's invisible life. These soil organisms must be continuously supplied with new humus, or the ground will quickly deteriorate. We hasten the wearing-out process when we attempt to replace these supplies with artificial manures. In all these situations, nature responds by leaving the soil a barren mass of mineral shards, devoid of oxygen, water, food, warmth, and shelter for the beneficial soil population. The inevitable result is the extinction of the soil and its people. The ruins are ultimately removed by nature through wind or water to create a desert or fresh ground somewhere else beneath the sea.

What impact has this soil neglect had on the human population? Man The Unknown, a masterwork by Alexis Carrel, summarises the outcomes. In the United States, at least £700,000,000 is spent on healthcare each year to treat diseases of various kinds, many of which would not have arisen had the soil's manurial rights been adequately protected.

It doesn't pay to neglect the dirt beneath the green carpet. As a result, large tracts of land are destroyed, and an inefficient population is produced.

All of this may be fixed if the law of reciprocity is upheld and all of the nation's available vegetable and animal wastes are turned into compost for the soil. A reading of this book, whose chapters I have just read with the utmost interest, will make obvious how exactly this should be done and what effects on crops, live animals, and people will then be witnessed. As this work evolved, a lot of things amazed me. What made me happiest was learning that Mr. Rodale possessed the priceless attribute of daring, which is only possible with advancement. Despite having no prior knowledge of the earth or its ways, he bravely purchased a farm, learned how to make it fertile, and then saw the effects of compost on his crops, livestock, and, later on, himself and his family members. Thus, he followed his own advice before dispensing it to his fellow countrymen in the pages of this book and his new newspaper, Organic Gardening, which has grown steadily over the years and months. All of this is very enlightening in a world that tends to become more and more superficial, primarily as a result of fragmentation, a disease of civilization in which closely related topics like agriculture, food, nutrition, and health have been divided into countless rigid and self-contained tiny units under the guidance of some group of specialists. The

Experts quickly discover that they are squandering their lives, learning more about less and less as their studies become focused on fewer and smaller parts. As a result, experiment stations and instructional facilities devoted to agriculture and gardening must be more transparent and cohesive in their operations. Knowledge is expanding everywhere at the expense of comprehension.

The goal is to consider the entirety of the field covered by crop production, animal husbandry, food, nutrition, and health as one related issue before realizing the magnificent idea that health is every crop, animal, and human being's inheritance.

PART ONE: The Active Horizon

Chapter: OneWHAT LIVES IN THE GROUND, Biologically

The soil is not a dead, inert substance, as many believe.

It is incredibly vibrant and alive. It is abundant with bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, mound, yeast, protozoa, algae, and other tiny organisms. All but the protozoa, which are microscopic animals, are plants. These smaller plants and animals are known as the soil's biological life. Although bacteria have been researched and used in business and by the medical community for over 75 years, agriculture has mostly ignored them.

This soil's microbial population is generally concentrated in the top four to five inches, where most organic materials that serve as their diet may be found. Only thirty to forty thousand bacteria per grime of soil may be present at three feet, compared to billions at higher levels. InaveryfertilesoilAn acre of bacteria can weigh up to 600 pounds. Their deteriorating corpses become humus when they pass away and improve the soil. A handful of the most benign, beneficial creatures are not.

They typically coexist in a delicate, balanced connection tightly regulated by nature. The inter-relationships get strained if soil conditions become out of control due to the introduction of foreign components (such as some powerful chemicals), a lack of sufficient nourishment, or climatic change, making it more challenging to grow plants as nature intended. About 1,000 different bacterial species have been classified by the Society of American Bacteriologists. Only around 100 are pathogenic, meaning they can cause illness in plants, animals, or people.

These bacteria produce plant food in the soil; in some instances (the mycorrhiza fungi), they even feed the plant with it. By dissolving or decomposing organic waste, fungi and bacteria perform the critical task of regulating the soil and its structure. The United States Department of Agriculture has identified two methods for doing this.

: decaying bacteria and fungi that feed on plants release filamentous mycelia, which bind fine soil particles into larger masses that withstand the washing effect of rains that would otherwise cause soil erosion.

The ability of nitrogen-fixing microorganisms to take nitrogen from the atmosphere is more widely understood.

Undoubtedly, there are several other significant correlations between soils. Bacteria may benefit from algae. The latter might give protozoa nourishment. It seems to be a well-regulated little society. All it needs is a diet of the foods it likes and other necessary circumstances.

First there has to be sufficient aeration. Most soil microorganisms require a specific level of oxygen. The soil structure becomes relatively loose and porous due to the agriculture method suggested here, which strongly emphasizes composts, encouraging maximum microbial proliferation. Conversely, systems that rely too heavily on chemicals eventually find themselves in hard-packed soil inhospitable to organisms.

Although moisture is crucial, there shouldn't be too much of it. Years of organic farming have improved the soil's physical structure, making it ideal for the retention of the correct quantity of moisture. With hard-packed earth, you either have a desert-dry environment where bacteria cannot survive or one that is too wet and supports dangerous anaerobic bacteria, which results in putrefaction rather than fermentation in the breakdown of organic material.

The inhabitants of the microscopic world flourish in warm environments, namely those between 70° and 100° F in temperature. Again, soil continuously supplemented with organic matter warms up earlier in the spring than soil that has been tortured with high doses of chemicals. Government experimentation has consistently demonstrated that soil will absorb more heat the darker it is. It is a widely acknowledged truth that regular humus treatment to the ground will gradually darken it and eventually turn it nearly black. There may be an 8–10° variation in temperature between very dark and yellowish soil. This issue of heat and light absorption is crucial because it allows a farmer to enter his property sooner in the spring if the earth heats up earlier.

A neutral or slightly acidic soil is another environment favourable to bacteria; fungi can grow in an acidic environment. In inforests with acidic soil, bacterial populations are lower. There, fungi primarily composed the work.

The more microbial life in the soil, the better it will be for growing crops, as is evident. Most soil textbooks concur that a soil's bacterial and other soil microorganism population increases with soil fertility. In the same way, it can be confidently argued that more soil organisms develop when more organic matter is added to the soil.

In Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, Sir E. John Russell discusses a bacterial count at the English Rothamsted Agricultural Station. 28,860,000 bacteria were found per gramme of soil in a field treated with farmyard waste. Only 15,100,000 bacteria were found where total minerals and ammonium sulphate were applied.Lyonand Buckmanin The

All common species of algae are significantly stimulated by the application of agricultural manure, according to Nature and Properties of Soils. Almost all researchers agree that applying organic manures enables and extends the soil's biological life significantly more than chemical or mineral fertilisers.

Let's look at some standard agricultural methods and how they affect the little organisms in the soil.

Some "bandits" exist in the soil that war on plants. We attack them, but we are unable to engage in selective conflict. Ten helpful germs, each harmful organism we eliminate, are also lost. Instead of promoting this biological soil society's natural activities by providing it with enough natural organic fertilisers, we douse it in poisonous sprays and caustic chemicals. There is no denying the fact that some more vital chemicals significantly decrease the amount of the soil's biological population. When we utilize antiseptics in medicine, we take advantage of this fact. To some extent, the microbiological components of the ground are affected similarly by our potent chemical fertilizers. Chemicals, such as benzoate or soda, are used to remove microorganisms that would otherwise "spoil" particular foods to preserve them.1

It is debatable whether sterilizing the soil in boxes used to grow young seedlings for transplants, such as tomato and pepper plants, is a good idea. It may eliminate the organism "damping off" the young plant, but it also eliminates many other vital soil microbes, which may lead to weakened seedlings.

Many farmers that use chemical fertilizers almost exclusively cultivate green manure crops that they plough under to find organic materials. These crops could include ryegrass, clovers, buckwheat, etc. But this is not always as effective as it sounds. The fertility of soil affects its "digestive" abilities or capacity to decompose organic materials. Large volumes of raw plant matter can hinder the activity of bacteria, fungi, and earthworms, decreasing the soil's ability to break down nutrients. There may be little of a problem where a young ryegrass crop is ploughed under, but if it gets too high before this is done, the newly sown crop may need more readily available nitrogen and other plant nutrients.

1 For this book, "chemical fertilizer" or "chemical" should refer to any commercial or manufactured compounds widely utilized in crop production over the past fifty years. When combined with elements in the soil, these substances tend to generate insoluble salts that are harmful to fertility. For instance, superphosphate, ammonium sulphate, calcium cyanimide, nitrate of soda, and such combinations as those popularly labelled, etc., also poisons prays such as the arsenicals. In contrast, ground For limestone For, For dolomite and other forms of natural lime For, For and the ground phosphate rocks For, For which are chemicals For, For strictly For speaking For, For are not to be considered For "For chemical For fertilizers For" For when we use the term.

Soil bacteria and fungus must work on ploughed under green stuff; to do so, they must consume the available nitrogen. It only takes a little to use up all the nitrogen available in infertile soil, which is why the newly seeded crop suffers. Good harvests result in the next year when the soil microbes die, and their nitrogen-enriched bodies return to the store of fertility reserves. Of course, a layer of green matter will be broken down more or less by an average soil, but more significant crop residues will simply prevent the growth of the subsequent crop, even though they will ultimately enrich the soil. One excellent reason to use composted or predigested organic material is for this.

Only the crop's straw residue is often returned to the soil in the wheat-growing region of eastern Washington. There, it is well known that this practice lowers the production of the following crop. Year after year, the fertility improves to the point where the soil's powers of digestion significantly enhance where it has been appropriately improved with organic composts. This soil has such a vast nitrogen reserve that the bacteria only use a small amount when decomposing new organic matter. It is more than enough for the following crop.

According to Sir Albert Howard, a farmer in Kenya, Africa was so productive that "the soil would eat almost anything thrown at it, from a gunny bag to corn Stover." This concept is well-explained by Eve Balfour in The Living Soil:

Cotton wool pads of known weight were buried for four months in untreated Wareham soil (a decrepit, worn-out soil), ordinary forest soil, and Wareham soil + C 5 compost in an experiment meant to quantify this factor. What was left of these pads after the period was dried and weighed again.

In untreated Wareham soil, only 10% of this cellulose had been digested; in woodland soil, the figure was 33.6; but in Wareham soil + compost, the percentage of decomposition was above 90%, according to representative data based on numerous repeats of the experiments.

A soil's "digestibility" correlates directly with the number of bacteria and other living things.

Chemicals that destroy the beneficial bacterial life lower this power of" digestibility" and make the soil less fertile.

Chapter: TWO

CONCERNING THE EARTH WORM

The common earthworm plays a crucial role in preserving soil fertility. It breaks up and aerates the soil. Topsoil is actually created by it. Without it, dirt would be comparatively tightly compacted. The plough of nature is the earthworm. It penetrates the soil and maintains it well-aerated, supporting soil bacteria growth. This type of earth's tunnels allows water to seep in rather than run off, keeping the moist conditions required for plant development.

The biologist Charles Darwin published a book titled Vegetable Mould and Earthworms around 1881. It was a summary of the findings of years of research on the role of earthworms in nature's overall system, and it concluded that without the earthworm, vegetation would deteriorate almost to the point of extinction. Unfortunately, when Charles Darwin's name was mentioned, and his book on earthworms stayed nearly untouched on library shelves for more than 50 years, people began to think solely of one subject: evolution.

Darwin claimed that when worms dig their burrows, they swallow a considerable amount of soil and absorb any digestible material that may be there. They also devour other organic debris, including fresh and partially decomposed leaves. To speed up digestion, the leaves are first pulled into the mouths of their burrows at a depth of one to three inches.

Darwin calculated that they consumed more than 10 tones of dry earth per acre per year, which meant that almost all topsoil was "treated" by them every few years. Wonderful soil cultivators consume microscopic rock particles and finished soil, which they crush and further decrease with their digestive secretions. By quickening the process by which rocks decompose into soil compounds, they aid in creating soil suitable for even the pickiest gardener.

Although they occasionally inhabit soil seven to eight feet below the surface, these tiny creatures primarily work in the top layer of the earth. They transport essential mineral components to the surface, which, when broken down, release necessary nutrients and increase the fertility of the topsoil. This is particularly important in areas where soils have been depleted by monoculture. They aerate the ground, allowing oxygen to reach plant roots. The growth activities of plants could not possibly occur without this oxygen in the soil. Many of our most vital plants are susceptible to illness and become easy prey to disease and insects when there is an oxygen reduction, as with hard-packed soils.

The farmer also finds earthworms valuable since they eliminate the larvae of several toxic insects. An intriguing experiment by the California Earthworm Farms demonstrated the significance of earthworms to plant health. They put earthworm-filled cans with half of the plants inside infected with nematodes. In roughly a year, all the cans where earthworms had been buried exhibited almost a 100% nematode clean-up. In some situations, the situation in the other cans was worse than at the beginning.

In a report presented to the Oregon State Horticultural Society on December 12, 1942, Dean William A. Schoenfeld, Director of Agriculture at Oregon State College, stated:

"I have seen earthworms' revitalizing power on permanent pastures while travelling through England and the Continent. These meadows, in some cases, were centuries old. Only lime or marl and manure, both solid and liquid, were used as fertilizer, and they were heavily grazed. I was informed that the meadows' carrying capabilities were far higher than 50 or 100 years ago. Nearlyeveryfarmervisitedgavemuchofthecreditfortheheavieryieldstotheearthworm."

According to British specialists, Earthworm castings reportedly reached around 120 tones per acre during the intense six-month cotton growing season that followed the Nile's overflow. This indicates a population density of 1,500,000 earthworms per acre. The organic material (their food) that the overflowing Nile deposits on the ground enables such a massive number of earthworms to exist. A very robust race with a strong constitution and attractive physical appearance are the Arabs who reside along the Nile's banks. Undoubtedly, one of the critical aspects is their food, which is grown in enriched soil from these castings.

Darwin calculated that on fertile soil, these castings add an average of 1/5 of an inch of topsoil to the surface each year.

The late Sir E. J. Russell, director of the renowned Roth Amsted Agricultural Experiment Station in England, discovered a connection between the application of farmyard manure and the quantity of earthworms in the soil. According to his book, Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, there were only 12,500 earthworms identified per acre in dirt with no manure added, compared to nearly 980,000 where significant volumes of dung were ploughed under. Russell goes on to state in the same book:

"Organic matter is spread throughout the layer in which earthworms operate when working in the soil, but in cool regions where there is little to no mixing, the dead vegetable matter accumulates on the surface.

Becoming a partially decomposed, acidic, peaty mass where typical soil decompositions have not fully occurred."

Where strong chemical fertilizers are employed, earthworms experience unpleasant conditions, and their populations rapidly decline, sometimes to extinction. These soil workers are particularly vulnerable to the harm caused by the fertilizer ammonium sulphate, which farmers widely use. The U.S. Government makes this information known by advocating ammonium sulphate as a method for killing off earthworms in places like greens on golf courses. Following the announcement from Farmer's Bulletin No. I569 sheds some insight on this point:

"The results of three years of applying ammonium sulphate to sod on the Department of Agriculture's experimental farm in Arlington, Virginia, for fertilizing purposes, have inadvertently demonstrated that earthworms were removed from the plots where this chemical was employed. This fertilizer creates a strongly acidic environment that is unappealing to the worms and causes them to vanish when applied to naturally neutral or slightly acidic soils."

Many different chemical fertilizers are slowly but surely eradicating the earthworm population. This was demonstrated at the Research Laboratoryat Dornach, Switzerland.

There, studies revealed that earthworms preferred compost-fertilized soil over artificial fertilizer-rich soil and did not prefer it over soil that had not been fertilized. Douse someone with some vinegar to observe the effects of even a moderate acid, such as vinegar, on an earth worm. It will cause in stand death.

Strong insecticides like lime-Sulphur-and-tar-oil, which also contain lead, arsenic, or copper, eliminate mealworms. Earthworms are challenging to discover inside potato-growing areas where these sprays are routinely sprayed into the soil. What's worse is that a large portion of the bacterial population is also negatively impacted, frequently leading to the ground being nearly sterile and forcing the farmer to labor in a lifeless environment. In such situations, increasing amounts of spray and chemical fertilizer must be used each successive year to achieve the required output. Earthworms are also extremely rare in vineyards or orchards that have had extensive spray treatment for a long time. The earth becomes incredibly tough to cultivate and move in such areas.

Others will likely follow suit when one part of nature's cycle is interrupted. Natureconsistsofachainofinterrelatedandinterlockedlifecycles.She cannot complete her work effectively if any aspect is removed. Remove the earthworm and bacteria fail to thrive.

Whether earthworms consume plant roots, particularly the fine root hairs, is an often discussed issue. There will be no eating there as long as no organic matter is present.

Roots. There will also be other, more harmful repercussions when a farmer or gardener allows the soil to become so devoid of organic matter that the earthworm, in desperation, turns to the roots for food. On the other hand, if there is enough humus in the soil, root growth becomes highly vigorous, and there are far more fine root hairs on plants growing in humus-rich soil than in humus-poor soil.

Most types of soil, even clay, can be worked by earthworms. Too much alkalinity has a harmful effect on them.

Therefore, one must be careful of the passage of his land. The earthworm's activity decreases significantly during the winter when the ground is frozen, yet it still exists below the frost line.

Due to its porous consistency and sponge-like structure, an earthworm-worked soil may absorb a two-inch rainstorm in fifteen seconds instead of a nearby clay soil that may take up to two hours to absorb the same amount of water. Each and every earthworm burrow serves as a watering hole. In a pasture, the presence of earthworm castings is a solid sign that the soil is fertile. Numerous roots use the worm's extensive tunnels to descend to lower elevations. The roots profit from the worms' use of a fruitful, liquid form of cast to fill these tunnels.

The earthworm's life span is only a year or two, yet their withering and decaying corpses provide a significant amount of top-notch fertilizer in many instances. A prosperous farm with one million earthworms per acre would have an earthworm population weighing roughly 1,100 pounds per acre.

The best type of hummus is made with earthworm castings. These castings have a very high fertilizer value and are made up of dirt and other materials that enter their digestive canals, mix with secretion, and pass through. At the Connecticut Experimental Station, it was discovered that the nitrogen content in these castings is over five times higher than that of typical topsoil, as well as the phosphate, potash, and magnesium contents. California florists spend a lot of money on earthworm castings. According to them, this substance is the greatest they have found for growing flowers.

Since the dawn, people have been aware of some of the earthworms' benefits to growing plants. The claim that prehistoric nomadic tribes in Central Africa always set up camp on terrain covered in earthworm casts is supported by Sir Bernard Greenwell, who also claims that this was the ideal grazing pasture. Similar phenomena can be found in many countries' folklore about farming.

In his book The Earth master System, Dr. Christine Sundermanhighlights conservatives' acceptance.

Earthworms have been widely acknowledged in agricultural circles as significantly increasing crop yields. He quotes from the intriguing Woolney experiment by Dr. C.S. Haggard about soils:

"Wolsey has shown by direct experimental culture in boxes, with and without earthworms, surprising differences between the cultural results obtained, and this has been fully confirmed by the subsequent researches of Djemil. In Wolsey’s experiments, the ratio of higher production in the presence of worms varied all the wayfrom2.6percent in the case ofoats,63.9percentinthat of rye,

135.9 percent in that of potatoes, 140 percent in vetch, and 300percentinthatofthefieldpea, to733percentinthecaseofrape."

Dr. Christine Sundermana letter from a practical earthworm culturist, a Georgia farmer, Mr.R.A.Caldwell, whoreports:

"I put moss roses in experimental pots, same age and condition, one with worms, one without; always, the one with the worms would take on fresh vigour and life, and I've seen them produce such spectacular growth as 16 to 1. Petunias in boxes have also grown to such size and abundance that it is astounding to someone who has never seen an example of how the earthworm can fertilize and cultivate. Petunias in identical fertility soil, with hundreds of worms burrowing around their roots, produced leaves 112 to 134 inches wide by 3 inches long, as opposed to those in boxes without the worms, which were 12 inches broad by 1 to 114 inches long. The worm-fertilized plants were several times as tall as the others."

Practically every agricultural textbook on soil has something positive to say about earthworms. Still, they hardly go into detail regarding the harmful effects of chemical fertilizers on these beneficial organisms. There is doubt that earthworms are killed in the hundreds of billions due to caustic chemicals. However, when the topic of earthworms is discussed with the typical agronomic scientist, he will typically nod in agreement that this small critter benefits the soil. Still, his passive demeanor will make it plain that he believes it is better suited for study in a biology class.

Breeding Earthworms

The popularization of earthworm rearing can be attributed to the late Dr George Sheffield Oliver of Texas, descended from James Oliver, the designer of the steel plough.

He first became interested in Darwin's book on the earthworm about thirty years ago. He didn't have to look far to realize that Darwin had significantly undervalued the value of the earthworm to agriculture. He used enormous flower pots in one of his experiments, painting some red and others green. He cleared the soil of all worms and worm eggs and placed them.

In the green containers are earthworms. Dr Oliver decided to learn how to manage the breeding of earthworms after determining that the plants in the latter were superior to those in the red pots. He used these little earthworks to impregnate his gardens and fruit orchards, and the results were so impressive that his neighbors believed he had a secret formula. His notoriety grew. He soon stopped practicing medicine and started landscaping. He cultivated vast numbers of earthworms and used them to create magnificent parks and gardens in the most challenging soil types. He received some of his most significant contracts from Hollywood film industry professionals. As his name grew, he eventually relocated to California, establishing the California Earthworm Farms and turning earthworm breeding into a lucrative business.

If you want to cultivate earthworms, purchasing one or two breeders from a conventional farm is advisable. If you try to breed the inboxes and dig your own, inferior results will be attained.

The vegetable grower who learned about the benefits of compost too late to prepare it for the following spring or who used up all of their compost during the autumn may benefit significantly from raising earthworms. Both boxes containing mixed green matter and manure can breed earthworms during the winter. The worms will break these down in the boxes so that the compost and earthworms may be spread out in the rows where the spring planting will occur. This hummus is the best available, and the earthworms will significantly complement the garden. Make a thick mulch out of hay, straw, corn stalks and other things, and apply it over as much ground as you'd like to experiment with to secure significant numbers of earthworms. We made the mulch about fifteen inches high and covered around thirty by twenty feet. The effect of the mulch is to keep the soil moist and offer the ideal food conditions for earthworm proliferation. You can notice the results after a few months when you dig into the ground. There will be a tremendous increase in their numbers in approximately a year.

Vegetable gardeners who like to leave half of their soil bare each year may cover it with this type of mulch, the underside of which will decompose, enrich the ground, and promote worm activity. Alternate are as each year.

Earthworms can be sold to fishers, fed to poultry, planted around fruit and decorative trees, and in vegetable and flower gardens. It is debatable whether mass-scale earthworm breeding for agricultural use is feasible. Concentrating one's energies on developing as much compost as possible for general farming needs is preferable. The use of this on an annual basis

Adding compost to the soil will enable earthworms to reproduce in sufficient and large numbers. In this situation, breeding them would be like bringing coal to Newcastle.

Thomas J. Barrett of Roscoe, California, California Earthworm Farms of Ontario, California, and Ohio Earthworm Farms of Worthington, Ohio, are the three most well-known large-scale earthworm breeders. Ambler, Pennsylvania's School of Horticulture, offers quarterly worm castings for houseplants and window boxes.

Chapter: THREEMy Corrival Fungus

We've talked about how earthworms and soil microorganisms contribute to soil fertility. The contribution produced by the tiny fungus living in the soil is a third important aspect in the growth of plants.

In the past, biologists have observed that many plants have microscopic fungi contaminating their roots. These were frequently seen as harmful—parasitic or competitive. However, contemporary soil scientists and biologists—primarily English—who have conducted rigorous research and experimental work on this subject have shown that this fungus fantastically assist the host plant and are essential to its well-being.

"Fungi, of certain small kinds, develop in contact with the tips of roots of many plants, Mycelial threads, which replace the root hairs, are woven tightly around them, especially those living in many humus. As its name suggests, this mycorrhiza absorbs water and mineral substances that it transfers to the roots. There is also some evidence to support the idea that it absorbs soluble organic substances released during humus breakdown but still benefits plants. This is one of the instances where two different organisms profit from their interaction, a condition known as symbiosis. The association is advantageous to both fungus and blooming plants."

The mycorrhiza is not a parasite; instead, it

collaborates with the roots of the plants it covers to survive.

Together—the origins and

This covering of my corridas—

They are able to draw in sustenance from the surrounding soil.

Two significant subgroups of mycorrhizas exist:

those enclosing plant roots and those entering root cells.

Both are advantageous and unusually significant for

agriculture. The first person to recognize the symbiotic i

interaction between the roots and these fungi was Professor

Wilhelm Pfeiffer in 1877. Dr. B. Frank was a

German botanist who researched the mycorrhiza

phenomenon. There were a few others,

but the topic remained the

purview of academic botanical research until recently.

The fungous threads of the mycorrhiza are eventually

digested or devoured by the plant through the roots,

something the early researchers either needed to

learn or if they did, did not include in their works.

Since the fungus is extremely rich in both proteins

and carbohydrates, the digested product enters the

sap stream and aids in the maturation of the plant.

Since Sir Albert Howard's research relates to the actions

of this group of fungi, Dr. M. C. Rayner and her assistant,

Dr Ida Levisohn, have been conducting mycorrhiza

experiments at Bedford College in London and

Wareham Forest, Dorset, for some years.

The research of Dr Rayner

on the mycorrhiza relationship in tree growth is

now acknowledged as being of epochal significance to

forestry.

Howard, in his book, An Agricultural Testament, finds:

"The my corrival association is thought to serve as a live link between fertile soil (soil rich in humus) and the crop and a means of transferring food-ready elements from the ground to plants. One of the most intriguing issues science is currently examining is how this relationship affects the function of the green leaf. Are the digestion byproducts of these soil fungi necessary for the efficient synthesis of proteins and carbohydrates in the green leaf? This will likely prove to be the case. Are the root causes of disease resistance and the quality of these digestive products? It would appears. If this is the situation, the health and well-being of humanity must depend on how effectively this mycorrhiza relationship functions."

Most readers of this book have probably struggled with transplanting rhododendrons, hemlock, and other forest evergreens and have pondered why the opposite plants did not thrive in soil specifically acidic for them and with ample shade. The most likely explanation is that the mycorrhiza relationship was disrupted during transplantation and could not form in the new soil. If you dig in the forest soil near the foot of such naturally growing trees and bushes, you will notice that the earth is a couple of inches or even more profound.

Half-rotten leaf mound that was fibrous, about as light and similar in texture to peat moss, and filled with a greyish mound. And many of the plant's surface roots can be found in this stratum; nevertheless, you discard this surface "earth." It seems insignificant. If you accidentally mulch your transplanted shrub with it, you'll likely have little trouble keeping it alive because you'll have brought the helpful mycorrhiza fungi with you. This beneficial association may be sustained in the new soil with correct mulching and upkeep.

One of the strongest arguments in favor of its use is that compost fertilization encourages the growth of mycorrhizas in the soil. As Lady Balfour points out in her analysis of Dr. Rayner's and Sir Albert Howard's work, "crops grown with compost, or ample quantities of farmyard manure, always showed maximum mycorrhiza development, in marked contrast to those grown with artificial."

Sir Albert Howard first noticed the immense potential of this plant-fungus relationship in 1937 while serving as director of the Institute of Plant Industry in Indore. He discovered that the "mycorrhiza relationship was either absent or poorly developed" in areas where plants were cultivated using chemical fertilizers. He saw parasitic fungal growths in tea plants, which are excellent mycorrhiza producers, in areas where chemical fertilizers had been applied, even though the soil contained plenty of humus. He describes the actions that were taken in 1938 and 1939 to test this theory by having the roots of sugarcane examined:

"Material was sourced from Natal, Natal, and Louisiana. The roots showed the mycorrhiza connection in every case. The substantial amount of materials from Natal includes canes grown using both humus and natural methods and artificial fertilizers. The outcomes shed light. After hummus, an extensive mycorrhiza forms, and the cane root rapidly digests the fungus. Artificial tend to either end the relationship or stop the cane roots from breaking down the fungus. These findings imply that the switch from manure to artificial fertilizers causes cane illnesses and the loss of variability."

Almost all domesticated plants have a mycorrhiza relationship. It has been observed in several different plants, including wheat, potatoes, ryegrass, alfalfa, virtually all fruit trees, rubber, coffee, tea, legumes, sugarcane, banana, strawberries, tobacco, pasture grasses and a significant number of others. Except in some contrived situations when high amounts of sugar or chemicals are supplied in the early stages, orchids cannot flourish without the assistance of mycorrhiza.

All signs conclude that well-developed mycorrhizas can only be found in humus-rich soil.

The symbiotic association of these green plants with a fungus is only created when they grow in humus, and it becomes more fully developed as the soil grows more rich in humus, notes Plants.

Howard was searching for healthy growing vines resembling those found in central Asia some time ago when travelling through the French wine-producing regions. After a protracted search, he discovered something in the Boucher du Rhone. He learned from the proprietress that no artificial fertilizers had ever been used there and that they were well known for the high caliber of their wines. He analyzed a few of the roots and discovered that they were mycorrhiza. They were disease-free, just like the Asiatic vines grown on farmyard waste.

Professor A.L. McCombie of the Iowa State Experimental Station discovered that mycorrhizas were necessary for transplanted pine seedlings to "take" in the new environment (Research Bulletin No. 314, April 1943). Additionally, he demonstrated that seedlings with mycorrhizae were four times more phosphorus-rich than seedlings without them. He provided evidence that the action of the mycorrhizas released phosphorous from the soil that would not have been accessible otherwise.

In Western Australia, nursery workers discovered that to plant tree seedlings successfully in a new nursery, the new soil needed to be amended with dirt from an old greenhouse. They injected them with mycorrhiza in this manner.

It is appropriate to share an excerpt from L. F. Easterbrook's essay on this topic from the April 15, 1944 News Chronicle.

"Wareham Heath is as uninviting a piece of land as can be found for cultivating anything. It is known as "Endon Heath" in the Hardy novels, and Thomas Hardy exploited its stark inefficiency to portray an immutability that even man's hand could not change. Today, it is being altered by man, or rather, by the scientific studies of a woman, Dr. M. C. Rayner.